Search form

Main menu

Comrade Malik speaks on the Pittsburgh massacre and anti-fascism

Peace and Blessing Sisters and Brothers!

Rose Malling was a 97-year-old Holocaust Survivor who came to the Tree of Life Synagogue in order to attend a baby naming ceremony. She was one of the 11 Jewish Humyn beings who were executed by a deranged man named Robert Bowers in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Squirrel Hill. Historically Squirrel Hill is a very quiet and safe Jewish enclave, but I knew it to be a very welcoming and loving community as I was growing up in the city of Pittsburgh during the 1980s. I worked at a local Greek Restaurant as a teenager in the neighborhood, I played basketball there, and when the steel mills went on strike, it was affluent Jewish families who allowed my father and I to come into their homes to do “odd jobs” in order to put food on our family's table while my dad supported his Steel Workers Local Union Hall. The Anders, the Hahns and the Blooms saved our family from starvation and homelessness during a rough time.

So, of course I have tears in my eyes as I type this message, but I have never been one to become overcome with emotion or allow it to block my 'steely-eyed' vision of the concrete conditions on the ground.

President Donald Trump has stoked the flames of anti-semitism and white supremacy in this country. More and more, we are seeing clear examples that white supremacists and neo-nazi haters feel empowered and comfortable with staging acts of violence against innocent people. However, this is not just a story of anti-semitic hate, it is a story about indiscriminate gun violence in Amerika! And once again, I ask all of you: “when is enough going to be enough?”

Southerland Springs Church, Parkland High School, Santa Fe High School, the massacre in Las Vegas, and now this?

You know, Sisters and Brothers, I personally have been labelled a threat because I say: “Let's end prison slavery in Amerika”, and I've gone about my business in a legal and peaceful manner. In 11 years of incarceration in the most racist and bigoted state in Amerika, I have never assaulted a TDCJ prison officer, I have never possessed a weapon, I have never held a hostage, I have never disrespected a woman! So we see that the 'powers that be' are very masterful at over-stating threats which they perceive coming from minorities, and grossly understating threats which come from the alt-right and angry white men who continue to murder innocent people in Amerika.

Something is very wrong here, and it is going to take a multi-racial collective response to address it.

Nevertheless, there is a time to give the politics a rest. At this point, I would like to offer my sincere condolences for the families who are still grieving. The families in Pittsburgh who lost a loved one on Saturday, October 27th, 2018. I want you to know that there are millions of us who will not tolerate anti-semitism. We will protect our Jewish sisters and brothers from the growing neo-nazi and white supremacist hate. We will put our hands on this! We will not just stand around and hold hands singing kum-by-ah! We will pray – without ceasing! However, we will also start to form protection details for churches, synagogues, and mosques in Amerika. I will not tell you who we are, but those who know will act without being told what to do. We will just act, because that is what we do in times such as this. Some believe that our black apparel is a sign of evil. But I'm here to tell all of you that it will be the black-clad warriors, both female and male anti-fascist freedom fighters, that will confront and neutralize these lovers of hate and gun violence. I have said enough. I leave you, as I came, in the spirit of peace!

Dare to struggle, dare to win, all power to the people!

Keith “Malik” Washington is a co-founder and chief spokesperson for the End Prison Slavery in Texas Movement, a proud member of the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee and Deputy Chairman of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party Prison Chapter. Malik has been instrumental in calling for the abolition of legalized slavery in Amerika and is very active in the Fight Toxic Prisons campaign. You can view his work atcomrademalik.comor you write him at: